There are numerous disorders that effect the musculoskeletal connective tissue of human and animal bodies. These include the following: arthritis (including rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, joint pain, and psoriatic arthritis); menstruation related disorders (including cramping and endometrial pain); polymyositis; muscle disorders; and stress. These different disorders and diseases share in common the fact that they may cause inflammation of the musculoskeletal connective tissue, resulting in pain and discomfort. The effective treatment of these disorders, and the pain and discomfort they cause, is obviously a matter for concern.
Some background information regarding these disorders and diseases, their causes, their affects on the body, and their treatments, illustrate the foregoing:
Arthritis
The term “arthritis” means joint inflammation; i.e., swelling, redness, heat, and pain caused by tissue injury or disease in the joint. Types of arthritis include osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriatic arthritis.
Osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, affects more than 20 million adults in the United States. It primarily affects cartilage, and occurs when cartilage begins to fray, wear and decay. In extreme cases, the cartilage may wear away entirely, leaving a bone-on-bone joint. Osteoarthritis can cause joint pain, reduced joint motion, loss of function, and disability. Disability results most often when the disease affects the spine and the weight-bearing joints.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disease of the synovium, or lining of the joint, that results in pain, stiffness, swelling, deformity, and loss of function in the joints. Inflammation most often affects joints of the hands and feet. More than two million people in the United States have rheumatoid arthritis.
Psoriatic arthritis occurs in some patients with psoriasis, a common scaling skin disorder. Psoriatic arthritis often affects the joints at the ends of the fingers and is accompanied by changes in the fingernails and toenails. Some people suffering from psoriatic arthritis also have spinal involvement.
Other than infectious arthritis, there is no known cure for arthritis. Current treatments only work to limit the symptoms of this disease. Treatments include rest and relaxation, exercise, hot and cold therapy, hydrotherapy, mobilization therapy, relaxation therapy, proper diet, instruction about the proper use of joints and ways to conserve energy, pain relief methods, assistive devices such as splints or braces, surgery, and medication. The medications used include analgesics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, acetaminophen, and corticosteroids.
Bursitis
Bursitis is a condition involving inflammation of the bursae, small, fluid-filled sacs that help reduce friction between bones and other moving structures in the joints. The inflammation may result from arthritis in the joint or injury or infection of the bursae. Bursitis produces pain and tenderness and may limit the movement of nearby joints.
Menstrual Cramping and Endometrial Pain
Menstrual pain, dysmenorrhea, includes as one of its symptoms menstrual cramps. Dysmenorrhea is related to prostaglandin production. Current treatments include oral combined contraceptives, beta-blockers, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, psychotherapeutic methods, and cervical dilatation.
Endometriosis is a common disease, affecting about 10 to 20 percent of American women of childbearing age. In endometriosis, tissue that looks and acts like endometrial tissue (the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus) is found outside the uterus, usually inside the abdominal cavity. At the end of every menstrual cycle, when hormones cause the uterus to shed its endometrial lining, endometrial tissue growing outside the uterus will break apart and bleed. However, unlike menstrual fluid from the uterus, which is discharged from the body during menstruation, blood from the misplaced tissue has no place to go. Tissues surrounding the area of endometriosis may become inflamed or swollen. The inflammation may produce scar tissue around the area of endometriosis. These endometrial tissue sites may develop into what are called “lesions,” “implants,” “nodules,” or “growths.”
The most common symptom of endometriosis is pain, especially excessive menstrual cramps (dysmenorrhea) which may be felt in the abdomen or lower back or pain during or after sexual activity. Rarely, the irritation caused by endometrial implants may progress into infection or abscesses causing pain independent of the menstrual cycle. Endometrial patches may also be tender to touch or pressure, and intestinal pain may also result from endometrial patches on the walls of the colon or intestine.
Current treatment for endometriosis includes pain medication, hormone treatment, and hormone suppression treatment. Hormone suppression treatment shuts off ovulation, and thus is only available to those women who are not seeking to become pregnant.
Polymyositis
Polymyositis is an inflammatory muscle disease that causes varying degrees of decreased muscle power. The most common symptom is muscle weakness, usually affecting those muscles that are closest to the trunk of the body. Eventually, patients have difficulty rising from a sitting position, climbing stairs, lifting objects, or reaching overhead. In some cases, muscles not close to the trunk of the body may also be affected later in the course of the disease. Trouble with swallowing (dysphagia) may occur. Occasionally, the muscles ache and are tender to touch. Patients may also feel fatigue and discomfort and have weight loss or a low-grade fever.
Treatment for polymyositis generally consists of a steroid drug called prednisone. For patients in whom prednisone is not effective, immunosuppressants such as azathioprine and methotrexate may be prescribed. Physical therapy is usually recommended to preserve muscle function and avoid muscle atrophy. Some cases of polymyositis respond to therapy, while the disease is usually more severe and resistant to therapy in patients with cardiac or pulmonary problems.
Muscle Disorders
The muscles of the body that can be voluntarily contracted are vulnerable to a variety of muscle disorders, including cramping, spasms, and tension. A muscle spasm occurs when a muscle contracts involuntarily. A sustained and forceful spasm is a muscle cramp. Muscle cramps generally last from a few seconds to fifteen minutes, and can affect a part of a muscle, a whole muscle, or a group of muscles. They are extremely common—affecting almost every person at some time.
There are four major types of skeletal muscle cramps—true cramps, tetany, contractures, and dystonic cramps. True cramps are the most common type of cramp. They are caused by the hyperexcitability of the nerves that stimulate the muscles. Tetany occurs when all of the body's nerve cells are activated, stimulating the muscles and causing spasms or cramps throughout the body. Dystonic cramps are where muscles that are not needed for the intended movement are stimulated to contract.
Cramps can be caused by a variety of factors, including as a protective mechanism following an injury, associated with the vigorous use of muscles and muscle fatigue, dehydration, body fluid shifts, low blood calcium, low blood magnesium, low potassium, medication, and vitamin deficiencies. Treatments include stretching of the cramped muscles, therapeutic doses of botulism toxin, and quinine. (Quinine, however, has been shown to cause birth defects and miscarriages.) Where cramps are associated with an underlying medical condition, treatment focuses on the underlying condition.
Stress
Stress is the reaction of animals to deleterious forces, such as abnormal states that tend to disturb their normal physiologic equilibrium. In response to stress, the pituitary gland and other systems within the body release hormones and trigger other responses to muster the body's defenses. Symptoms associated with stress include, among others, musculo-skeletal problems.
It should be clear then that each of these disorders and diseases presents a problem to those who are afflicted, and that safe and effective treatments are desirable. With respect to treatment methods, non-invasive, non-surgical techniques are generally preferred to surgery. Moreover, safe non-chemical treatments are generally preferred to the use of medications, which can have foreseen or unforeseen side-effects on the body. While the individual disorders listed here have different causes, the fact that they all can affect the musculoskeletal system raises the possibility that a single treatment could potentially work for each of these disorders. The present invention is directed to a treatment for each of these disorders—a treatment that is non-invasive, non-surgical, and non-chemical.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,132,942, issued to applicant herein, a low frequency electroacoustic transducer (the “Cassone Transducer”) is disclosed. According to U.S. Pat. No. 5,132,942, the Cassone Transducer could be used to efficiently disperse emulsions, chemical and other wastes, and the like for recycling and environmental enhancement. The Patent does not disclose the use of the Cassone Transducer for medical purposes. It is to that use that the current invention is directed.